1. Be a guest blogger on JohnCow.com.
2. Make more than $0.33 in AdSense revenue for one month.  
3. Get mentioned by a news media outfit as a source.
4. Sell all my available 125×125 ads space for $100 a piece.
5. Blog about some topic  and have it catch like wildfire around the blogosphere.
6. Do a video blog entry without sounding like an idiot.
7. Make it to the top 100 favorites in Technorati.
8. Have John Chow (or Cow) do a review of my blog without having to pay.
9. Take over the Internet with EC credits, buying up ad real estate on hundreds of blogs all at once.
10. Actually gain some traffic from BlogRush.
11. Offer Darren Rowse free spelling lessons.
12. Break a story on something relevant to millions of people. Have my server buckle under the traffic.
13. Make it to the frontpage of DIGG!

I don’t even need to finish that sentence. Many of you completed the phrase in your mind, maybe without even thinking about it. With language, we become hypnotized by phrases. We can finish the sentence just like we’re having a conversation with a lover in the park. “Good things come to those…” See what I mean? As bloggers, can’t we use this testament to the human mind to our advantage?We can try to create a viral message that catches on like the holy ghost at a rapture party, but that just won’t happen for 99% of us. I’ll give an example of what we can do.

A friend of mine in college used to wear this tshirt every once in a while. The tshirt had a common phrase on the front, from which a lot more was implied. It drew giggles, slaps on the back, faux praise, and most of all — laughs. The shirt read:

I am the man from Nantucket

Now this was genius marketing on his part. Every girl that read his shirt was being sold a fantasy, and every guy was given a wry smile. He was selling himself, and not short (sorry, had to go there). What we can do with a title, a blog post, and our whole blog’s meme can be seen through this type of message. Turn a commonality into a uniqueness. Turn a cliche on its head. Create a unique character in the reader’s mind.

Fiction writers learn early on that cliches only work for specific characters or to expose a point. What bloggers have to realize — no matter how true to life posts may be — you are still creating a character on the page. But I’m just blogging about my dinner, you say? That’s creating a character in our mind, especially if the dinner was expensive, the restaurant chic, and the photos nearly edible. What better way to create a character full of success than showing him indulging and imbibing? And if our blog carries the personal weight of our life’s journey, then the cliches probably belong alongside our workout routine.

Whether our blogs separate wholly from our natural life or recant daily activities like its their job, they do manifest in the minds of our readers a person with certain qualities. Some of my favorite blogs have all sorts of characters writing them. They range from meek and gentle to outspoken and overly confident. I read each one of them for different reasons. What type of character does your blog have? Have you created a Hemingwaybull fighter or a Carver introvert?

Our blog’s maturity - our character development - should be more than just throwing gunk at the wall then seeing what sticks. My friend knew his shirt’s slogan would raise eyebrows, bringing him attention of a far different kind than he usually received. Why not have a little fun, he would say. You only live once.

It’s Monday morning. Outside the sun shines bright on the frozen tundra. I’m about to set all that on fire, at least online. The first ever Jason Boom.com contest begins today, and goes through Sunday the 27th.

What’s the Prize?

- (2) 125 x 125 ad on the sidebar (to be displayed for 30 days)

- (3) Sidebar links

What do you have to do to enter?

- (1 entry) Sign up for the Jason Boom.com RSS feed.

- (2 entry) Sign up for the Jason Boom.com RSS feed via email.

Once you’ve signed up, come back to this post to comment, letting me know you’ve entered. It’s as easy as that! All winners will be announced during the Weekly Implosion post on Sunday morning.

Good luck, everyone!

Why do we spend our days writing blogs? I’ve thought about this, as I’m sure all bloggers have at some point in their blogging careers. As with anything, its as much about the lifestyle as it is about the blog itself. We create content, network with other bloggers, join communities, rate blogs, write comments, surf listings, seek out new online thrills, buy advertising, sell advertising, trade links, buy links, fret over traffic, add widgets, join RSS feeds, gain readers, and have a great time doing it. All of which I’ve enjoyed doing this first full week at this blog.

The appeal of making money sure does sound great, but when that becomes the primary goal of anything it tends to outshine the other inherent qualities. Do we blog to make money, to increase our awareness of writing itself, to join communities, or do we do it simply because we love to blog? I think its the latter. We love this stuff. This is how we build a strong reader base.

I want to hear from you. I want you to tell me why you blog, either in a blog post or in the comments here.

This week I’ve seen other people’s blogs used in many different ways. I’ve seen blog posts written on the devastating effects of cancer, how to build strong ties to fellow bloggers, on topics similar to my own, and I’ve joined fellow bloggers in an attempt to win favorable ad space on CyberStreet Report.

Upcoming Posts
This week on JasonBoom.com we’ll be running a contest of our own. The details of that will be made public either Monday or Tuesday. Be sure to check back for that. We will also be starting a few new series of blog posts. The first of which will be powder keg reviews. The idea behind the powder keg is they can unlock a lot of potential for your blog. We’ll be reviewing new blog community sites, tools, widgets and plugins in this series.

The Weekly Implosion
This week has been jam packed with information, since the blog just went live under the Jason Boom name one week ago. I’ve made friends, photographed my office, did a quick review of what other bloggers have been saying, discussed the change of my blog name, unveiled the stellar logo, participated in Lorelle’s travel post challenge with this gruesome entry, submitted a guest blogger post to the vacationing cow, and a whole lot more.

There’s someone watching. We all have traffic measurement software. We can see the peaks and valleys and equate those to numbers, but behind those soft falling crests and mesmerizing integers come human beings. (Unless of course your traffic analysis software mistakenly counts bots, but I digress.) Those humans are trained readers, and everyone of them carries their own grenades to the blog post you’re writing at this moment.

These grenades can best be described as the reader’s indifference weapons. The moment our writing veers from their scope of interest the pin might be pulled, leaving their hand flinching with anticipation. They want to toss it into your corner and go scurrying for their safe zones — those blogs they frequent. You must answer why they should stay.

We all have an audience. We want the traffic, and we want the recognition for our hard work. We think our egos are bulletproof, protected from those grenade blasts, but they are not. We need a comment — a bone, thrown.

What goals do our readers have? Can we find that out? Are they seeking to create their own webpages, learn more about pottery, fix a tire, write a letter to the great beyond? How did they find us? What role does our blog fill?

Know Thyself

We each have our experience, education, language, problems, family, and work.  Our blogs may deal with those things or completely ignore them. The visitors to our blogs have their whole package of influences. And they have their grenades poised to erase you from their environment. If we know ourselves, though, we can draw in those who can relate to our blog posts. They may come sheepishly at first, so we need to reinforce their initial impression through quality, focused writing. Those who toss their grenades and vanquish our blog from their landscape may find somewhere else they can relate. That’s fine. What should and does matter are the readers who stay, those who sign up for the RSS feeds, comment on the posts, and praise the good work of our writing.

Our writing can be expressive, tunneled outpourings that drench our readers. Or, it can be simple, instructive and concise on the topics we are passionate.  

Through blogging, we all have audiences. So look up from your keyboard, survey those reading, and, most importantly, know yourself.